Energy demands and renewable energy resources in the Middle East

The energy security and supplies of energy are the key components for progressing countries. Renewable energy resources are rapidly being recognized as clean sources of energy to withstand damages to environment and to avoid future crisis. In this study, energy consumption and energy demands in the progressing Middle East countries are reviewed. First, the growth of energy consumption of the region through recent years is presented which show the rapidly growing energy demand in the Middle East countries. Second, by using RETScreen software data, the potential of the main renewable energies of solar and wind resources are evaluated. Results showed that the Middle East region have a very good potential for using renewable energies. Results are presented as GIS maps of wind speed, wind power density and solar radiation intensity. With using the GIS maps, the great locations for utilizing solar or wind energies are identified. The presented GIS maps may facilitate development of hybrid solar and wind systems within the Middle East region. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.